Forget the guard of honour, the match was the spit-soaked hankie on the cheek. What really, really humiliated Barcelona wasn't standing and applauding, it was that the pasillo was followed by a paseo - a walk in the park. That Madrid ran out 4-1 winners and lead Barcelona by 17 points, that Barcelona can no longer get second place and could only watch as Ruud van Nistelrooy and Higuaín scored with their first touches, as Mahamadou Diarra ran rings around their midfield and as the Bernabéu roared "¡olé!" That Joan Laporta listened to fans – Madrid fans - chanting: "Laporta please stay!"
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"They were better than us in everything," admitted Víctor Valdés, while Rijkaard shrugged: "we suffered". Worse still, it was a performance so complete in its patheticness, so utterly gutless, that it summed up Barça's season, "the final brick in our wailing wall" as El Mundo Deportivo put it, "the final stab in the supporters' back", according to a mourning Sport, whose front cover this morning is completely black and reads: "Tragic End: You have dishonoured the Barcelona shirt".